Ephesians 5:1-5
Notes
Transcript
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Tiger and Charlie video.
The similarities of Father and son. (Created in His likeness)
The examples Tiger set ingrained into Charlie. (Created in His image)
There were all kinds of other golfers in Charlies life but he didn’t look to them he looked to Tiger. (We look to God not the world)
Note the joy you can see in tiger as he sees his son imitating him. (God delights in us)
He enjoys the similarities but still wants him to be his own person. (We are each uniquely wired. We are to honor Him in that uniqueness)
Here we start off chapter 5 with a simple sounding instruction from Paul that really will shape our Christian lives if we lean into it with intentionality and humble dedication.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.
5:1. Just as it is natural for an earthly child to imitate his earthly father, so should the spiritual child imitate his Heavenly Father. The word imitate comes from the word mimeomai, from which we get our word mimic. It means “to act like.”
Just as it is natural for a child to imitate a parent it should be a natural desire for us to want to imitate God. A child sees there parent and desires to be like them but we on the other hand were created in the likeness and image of God so that desire is ingrained in us.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
So being created in the image of God we should have that natural desire to be imitators of God but we also know we aren’t living the lives we were created for after sin entered the world.
So we have this internal battle waging war inside of us. The battle of living how we were created to live verses the lives we live after the fall. After sin entered the world.
Paul explains that battle like this in Romans.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So if we have this war waging inside of us how are we to imitate God. What’s a good first step in this because let’s face it it sounds like a daunting task. Me a sinner, a slave to sin is commanded to imitate God? God the creator of the world who hates sin and has no sin in him? Most of us would probably say I have know idea even where to start.
But thankfully God in all of his goodness knew the difficulty this would present us so through his Holy Spirit inspired word gave us a clear direction.
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
5:2. To imitate God in this context means to walk in love. Love denies self. It is willing to give up self-interest for God’s sake.
Since Jesus gave himself up for us, we ought to give ourselves up for him.
To give oneself up means “to follow, to obey, to live in relationship with.”
One of the things I love about the teachings from the Apostle Paul is that even though we see letters to many different churches that all faced different issues we never see him conform to the cultural issues of that church. We see him preaching the same Gospel message no matter the church and situation. It brings me a sense of peace in teaching God’s word here at Gospel Community Church because we are a church that wasn’t around when this was written and we are facing our own cultural issues but the beauty of the gospel is that we can navigate them with those same instructions he wrote to those churches.
So here he tells us to walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.
So what does that mean and what does that look like?
How Christ Loves
How Christ Loves
So we are called to imitate God and to love as Christ loved us. So if we are to understand how we are to imitate God's love, we need to know how that love works and what it is like. The master we are to imitate is none other than Christ Himself and Paul tells us exactly what that love looks like. So let us take a careful look at the love which Christ has demonstrated for us.
He Gave Himself for Us
He Gave Himself for Us
The text says that "Christ loved us and gave himself up for us." Paul puts it this way in...
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
There was a time when Jesus made a decision and the decision was to offer Himself in order to come to the earth and to make the sacrifice that was necessary in order to redeem people from their sins.
He was in heaven reigning with God, but made the choice to give up all that power and position in order to come to this earth on our behalf. That is what it means that He gave Himself for us.
When Jesus was about to be put to death, he was in the Garden of Gethsemane and was fully aware that his life was about to end in a terrible way. He was about to be hung on a cross, but not only that, He was about to be held guilty for the sins of the whole world. At that moment, he once again had to make a choice. His prayer to the Father at that moment was one in which he sought a way out of the terrible suffering He was about to endure. This tells us that it was terrible indeed, more terrible than we can imagine. Yet at that time Jesus said, "Not my will, but yours be done." That is what it means that He gave Himself for us.
The love of Jesus was self giving and sacrificial. The model of love is Christ himself. It is because he laid down his life for us that we are to love others to the point of sacrifice." Therefore, when we consider how we are to imitate the love of Christ, we understand that imitation of love involves sacrifice. We must learn what it means to give our life for the sake of another.
He Gave Himself to God
He Gave Himself to God
The other phrase we notice here is that Jesus "gave Himself up…a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." The sacrifice which Jesus made to show His love was not only "for us," but also "to God." Jesus didn't only offer Himself on our behalf. He offered Himself to His Father.
His death on the cross was God's idea and He loved God so much that He trusted that God's plan was the right one and the one which He should follow. Therefore, because He loved and trusted God, He was willing to give Himself to God. The direction of His life was towards God. The direction of His sacrifice was towards God. He gave who He was and what He had to God.
The language used here, "offering and sacrifice" comes from the language of Old Testament offerings. There were different types of offerings and sacrifices which were common in the Old Testament times. The offerings indicated that a sacrifice had been made. Someone had dedicated some animal or some grain to God. It indicated a dedication to God which was made with gratitude. This tells us that, following the example of Jesus, our love must also be offered to God as a sacrifice to Him, something that is dedicated to God.
He Forgave Us
He Forgave Us
The third example of love demonstrated in this passage is he died for us and so took the offence upon Himself and did not hold it against us. In the same way, we are called to imitate His forgiveness by loving others and showing that love by forgiving them.
One of the ways in which we often get into relational trouble is when we take offence at what someone has done to us. When that happens, we often assume malicious intent on their part and we hold it against them. If we are to imitate the love of Christ, we must imitate His readiness to forgive.
We seen that in verse 32 from last weeks passages.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
The love which Christ has is sacrificial, offered to God and forgiving. That is the kind of love we are to imitate.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
5:3–4. The opposite of imitating God and giving oneself up for him is living in opposition to the things of God. Some of the things that Paul lists are sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness. Paul says that it is not proper for these things even to be named among the children of God.
So let’s take a look these 3 sins he lists in verse three.
First sexual immorality. What is sexual immorality? Any sexual act outside God’s original design for sex.
The most complete list of prohibited sexual relations is found in the Mosaic Law. Leviticus 18 contains prohibitions against sex with close relatives, with those of the same sex, and with animals. Scripture calls these sexual relations “detestable things” or “abominations”, by which individuals and nations were “defiled”.
Adultery, sex with a married person other than one’s spouse was punishable by death for both participants, while pre-marital sex was “punished” by forced marriage.
Rape also carried a death sentence.
The New Testament reiterates most of these prohibitions. John the Baptist condemned King Herod for marrying his brother’s wife
For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Same-sex activity is called “shameful lusts” and condemned for both men women
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;
and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
So we see that those who practice sexual perversion are warned they have no place in God’s kingdom here in today’s verses and in
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
One of the things I want to point out not about just these sins but any sin is that Heaven will not be filled with people who never committed any of these sins. It will be filled with people who repented of all their sins and turned to God as their Lord of Lord and King of Kings.
On the flip side though Hell will be filled with people who chose the desires of their flesh and made those desires the lords of their lives.
This isn’t about perfection it’s about submission. It’s about putting our faith in God above all else in our lives.
In scripture Jesus condemned not only physical adultery, but also adultery in one’s mind or heart.
Prostitution is condemned in both Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 23:18; 1 Corinthians 6:16–17);
You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the Lord your God.
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
At the same time, the Bible provides examples of forgiveness extended to prostitutes, from Rahab (Joshua 6:25)
But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
to the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11)
but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
Rahab was accepted into Israel and honored for her faith (Hebrews 11:31), and Jesus forgave the adulterous woman in John 8, telling her, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).
Next we have impurity.
The Bible’s idea of impurity, but there is more to it than that. Impurity really includes all kinds of sin and encompasses any activity, thought, word, or action that does not conform to God’s will for our lives.
For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
The glory of the gospel is that God can make what is impure, pure; and what is unclean, clean. To our eternal joy, God desires to do just that, for Christ’s sake:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Then we have covetousness.
Covetousness “is an insatiable desire for worldly gain.” Or another way it’s defined is covetousness is an insatiable desire to find fulfillment, meaning and purpose in things, instead of in God.
The spirit of covetousness leads to and is the mother of many other sins. Coveting another man’s wife can lead to adultery.
Coveting another man’s possessions can lead to lying, theft and sometimes murder.
Covetousness leads to dishonesty.
These are sins of “deed.” In addition to sinful deeds, he says there shouldn’t be sinful “words.”
Obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking ought not be part of the speech patterns of Christians. Rather, we ought to speak from a heart of thankfulness to God.
This is an area where I can struggle at times. My language has greatly improved through desired obedience, conviction from the Holy spirit and repentance but it’s still an area I desire to be better in.
As most of you know I have what I like to think of as a fun and playful personality, and I believe God wired me that way. That in itself is not the problem it’s when I take those personality traits and use them in a way that brings glory to myself and not to God and that usually comes into play when my joking becomes those things listed. Obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking.
Obscenity I think is pretty self explanatory. But is defines as offensive or disgusting by accepted standards of morality and decency.
Foolish talk would be acting foolish with our conversations or acting in opposition to the intellect and wisdom God has given us.
Coarse joking is what I would call taking something to far. Joking around is fun and can lighten the mood but when we take it to a sinful level either sinning against God or that person with our words it would fall under coarse joking.
The way I like to look at it is placing value in getting laughs over the feeling of the person on the other end of the joke. Gaining something for yourself at their expense.
Sometimes there may be no ill intent. The intent is all in good fun but the willingness to have that good fun knowing it will hurt someone else is the sin of pride.
(Story of hurting Maria’s feeling without any intent)
But instead let there be thanksgiving. Every breath we have in life is something to be thankful for, are we expressing that and building up one another.
5:5. Paul warns the Ephesian Christians not to engage in the activities of those who are disobedient. It might be possible for someone to interpret this that if Christians engaged in these activities they would lose their salvation. That is not Paul’s point.
Paul is saying that we are not to do these things because we are no longer those who are disobedient. Since we are not part of them anymore, we should not be partners with them.
It is not a matter of salvation in this instance but a matter of identification. We are not like them anymore; therefore, we ought not to live like them. If we are partners with them, we are forewarned. Such people do not share the kingdom inheritance. Rather, they endure divine wrath. No fine theological arguments can get around that simple truth.
So in this as Pastor Tony said last week we always want to point back to Jesus. These things can begin to feel like an attack. Like we are hammering you down with a bunch of legalism. But when we look back to the cross and understand the price that was paid for our salvation. When we see The sacrifice of Jesus for what it was, the greatest act of love ever. We should have a natural desire to do better, to live better, to act better.
Is it tough? You can bet your biscuit it is. That’s why confession and repentance are so very important. Confession and repentance is positioning ourselves in a heart condition that opens the door for the Holy Spirit to do the work in us that we can never do ourselves.
Does God expect perfection? No, because if he thought that you had any chance at perfection maybe he wouldn’t have had to send his Son to that cross he could have sent you.
Sanctification is a life-long process of becoming more and more holy as we strip away the sinful layers of our life.
So a couple questions to consider before we leave, and depending on how you answer these it will give you a clear direction on where your prayer life should be heading.
Do you desire to do better at honoring God with your words and your deeds or actions? If yes that is the fertile soil needed for the things of God to take root in your life.
If you said well not really Pastor or I’ve never really thought about it. There’s the direction your prayer life needs to start heading. Start pleading for God to give you that desire to honor Him more in all you do.
And lastly do you just dismiss the sins in your life or do you feel true remorse over the things that you sometimes do?
It will be easy to recognize when your sin brings remorse. Because if it don’t bring remorse it will always bring justification. If you find yourself having to come up with reasons to justify the things you do you not really heart broken over the space it is creating between you and God.
But even that isn’t a condition to send you into sustained condemnation. It’s an opportunity for you to pursue the goodness that God has allowed you to taste. We want to be like the dog eating it’s own vomit but God wants us to be sustained on His goodness. On his grace and his mercy, and he desired it’s so greatly that
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Let’s pray.